Space Command: Will It Spawn An Elite Corps Of Star Warriors?

October 13, 1985|By Richard C. Gross. United Press International.

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. — The rolling Colorado rangeland has sprouted concrete facilities for the command and control of military operations in space that could blossom into a separate space corps of the future.

Formal activation of the multi-service Space Command Sept. 23 set in motion a headquarters for the control of defensive military operations in space with far-reaching implications for the future of manned space flight and the role of the military beyond the Earth`s atmosphere, including battle management of a ``Star Wars`` anti-missile system.

``The acorn has been dropped and is taking seed,`` said Rear Adm. William Ramsey, deputy commander of the new operation.

At the heart of Spacecom, as it is called, beats the Consolidated Space Operations Center--or CSOC (pronounced see-sock). Control of all satellites, shuttle flights and future space systems dedicated to military missions will come from the $92 million complex of four pre-cast concrete buildings.

It is from this outpost at the edge of the Western plain, dominated by the towering presence of the Rockies, where the control of military payloads launched into space aboard the shuttle can be carried out without fear of secrecy being compromised.

Indeed, CSOC`s remote location on a square mile of what was nothingness now tagged Falcon Air Force Station is intended to ensure secrecy. It is situated nine miles east of Peterson Air Force Base.

An operations room in one of CSOC`s four buildings is encased in a shell of continuously welded steel 1/16th of an inch thick to prevent the leakage of communications to eavesdropping Soviet satellites.

With the future clearly in mind, planners have penciled in the capability to expand the complex by copying the existing structures twice--tripling CSOC`s size to accommodate missions that today may be visions on paper.

Creation of a unified military command for the operation of Defense Department space systems, an outgrowth of the Air Force Space Command that was spawned three years ago, dovetails with the Reagan administration`s emphasis on developing the capability to ``wage war from outer space,`` as a secret Pentagon guidance document described it in March, 1982.

That phrase referred specifically to the development of an antisatellite missile, a Pentagon official familiar with the document said. The F-15-launched missile demonstrated for the first time Sept. 13 that it can destroy a target in space.

But in March, 1983, President Reagan launched his Strategic Defense Initiative, better known as ``Star Wars,`` to determine the feasibility of building a complex ground and space-based system to defend the United States and its allies against a Soviet missile attack.

Spacecom will control the anti-satellite weapon when it becomes operational, targeted for 1987. It likely will be responsible for the space-based segment of a ``Star Wars`` defense.

``If ASAT is operationally deployed, it will be run by the Air Force Space Command, which is a component of Spacecom,`` said Gen. Robert Herres. He heads Spacecom and the nearby North American Aerospace Defense Command, buried in nearby Cheyenne Mountain near Pike`s Peak.

It is too early for a decision on which military command would control SDI if it becomes reality, but Spacecom`s role as ``an endurable and secure facility for the command and control of Department of Defense space shuttle and satellite missions,`` as the Air Force said, makes it natural for it to become a star warrior base--at least the space-based segment of SDI.

At a time when the United States is becoming increasingly dependent on space vehicles for attack warning, surveillance, navigation and tactical weather data, Spacecom`s role in the future defense of the nation is limited only by the interservice rivalries that help guide military policy and money. For the hopeful visionaries, Spacecom is ``the Air Force of tomorrow,``

as one Air Force officer described it.

Without taking over NASA`s traditional role as the guardian of the manned space program, Spacecom--or its future hybrid--conceivably could launch manned missions to protect civilian U.S. space ventures that range from assembling a space station in orbit early in the next decade to colonizing the moon and maybe Mars in the next century.

Dominance of the warship was related to the necessity to protect merchant trade that sailed the high seas. Too, gun-bearing ships set out to explore the world.

Exploration historically has been a mix of military and civilian adventures, and whether Spacecom will direct future exploratory missions into space cannot be ruled out.

Citing Lewis and Clark`s 19th Century trek into the Pacific Northwest as a military expedition, Herres said Spacecom`s future ``will depend on what our national security needs are. Exploration, commercial activities would be separate.